Gun sight



[ 33-2 +l. (m 292059452 SR 1 @BEHCH mum July 16, 1940.

c. B. FERREL 2,208,452

GUN SIGHT Filed Aug. 30, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l IN V EN TOR. 6% n W.

ATTORNEY.

*BBiGEOMETRICALiNSTRUMhNIS. mam Room July 16, 1940. FERREL 2,208,452

- GUN swim Filed Aug. 50. 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 33. UtUMt I RICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Patented July 16, 1940 UNITED STATES Search Rcom PATENT OFFICE Ferrel Ordnance, Inc.

, San Francisco, Calif., a

corporation of California Application August 30,

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a pointing device for firearms such as rifles, machine guns and the like, and particularly to an illuminated rear sight whereby aiming or sighting of a firearm at night or in semi-darkness becomes possible.

The object of the present invention is generally to improve and simplify the construction and operation of pointing devices of the character described; to provide a rear sight consisting of an elongated plate having a slot formed therein through which the front sight and the target to be shot at may be viewed, toprovide graduations on opposite sides of the slot for varying elevation or range, said graduations consisting of depressions and cut or deepened lines extending from opposite sides thereof, which are adapted to be partially filled with a phosphorescent material to illuminate the graduations; to provide a transparent covering medium in the form of liquid cellulose, lacquer or the like, to fill the recesses and lines after the phosphorescent material has been applied, said liquid lacquer hardening after application to form a permanent covering and protection for the phosphorescent material; to provide a transparent covering material of the character described which is adapted to be darkened with a color dye, for instance dark red, green, blue, etc., so as to filter out all white and yellow light rays emanating from the phosphorescent material; and further, to provide a pointing device of the character described which is simple in construction and which is quickly and readily adjusted for windage, varying ranges, etc.

The pointing device is shown by way of illustration in the acompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of. a gun barrel showing the application of the pointing device, said view showing the rear portion of the pointing device in longitudinal vertical section;

Fig. 2. is an end view of the rear sight, looking in the direction of line II-II of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross section taken on line III-III of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of Fig. 5, said view being partially in section;

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the rear sight showing the standard in raised position;

Fig. 6 is a cross section taken on line VIVI of Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the base portion of the rear sight;

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the standard portion of the rear sight, said view showing the rear face of the standard;

1938, Serial No. 227,512

Fig. 9 is also a perspective view of the standard, but showing the forward face of the same;

Fig. 10 is a. perspective view of the sighting plate carried by the standard, and showing the rear side thereof;

Fig. 11 is another perspective view of the sighting plate but showing the front face thereof; and

Fig. 12 is a plan view of Fig. 5.

Referring to the drawings in detail, and particularly to Figs. 1 to 6 inclusive, A indicates a rifle barrel, B the front sight, and C the rear sight forming the subject matter of the present invention. The rear sight consists of a base section having a hub 2 and three rearwardly extending arms 3, 4 and 5. The base is secured to the barrel proper by a screw 6, and it is also adapted to swivel about the same as the forward face of the hub is provided with gear teeth 1 which intermesh with a worm gear pinion 8 which is journaled in a portion 9 of the barrel, and extends horizontally and crosswise of the same. The outer end of the worm pinion is provided with a knurled head which, when grasped by the fingers and rotated in one direction or the other, will impart motion to the base and swing it about the pivot to allow for windings. The upper face of the portion 9 of the barrel is graduated as indicated at IU (Fig. 12). A marker II on the hub swings with relation to the graduations, and the base may accordingly be adjusted to any required angle to compensate for cross-winds of any velocity. Pivotally mounted between the arms 3 and 5 of the base, as at I2, is a standard l4, and slidably mounted in said standard is a sighting plate l5. The standard presents a smooth fiat undersurface, except for a lug l6 and a pair of stiffening or reinforcing ribs which are received between the arms 3 and 5. The lug It serves two functions; first, that of receiving the pivot l2, and secondly, it presents two flat surfaces disposed at right angles to each other, which are engaged by a flat spring secured to the arm 4. The spring, by thus engaging the respective surfaces presented by the lug, functions to retain the standard either in its flat or folded position, shown in Fig. 1, or in the upright position shown in Fig. 5.

The upper or rear face of the standard is provided with two flanges l1, the inner faces of which are beveled or dovetailed to form a guide and retainer for the sighting plate l5. The face between the flanges is milled out to form a groove l8 to receive a friction shoe or pad l9 formed on the inner face of the sighting plate. Two longitudinally extending slots are cut in the standard to form a central arm 2 la, on the outer end of which is formed a stop-shoulder 2| with which the shoe I9 engages to limit upward movement of the sighting plate, inward movement be ing stopped by an inner shoulder 22. The standard is made from spring steel so that the central arm may be slightly bent in an inward direction to apply pressure and maintain frictional contact with the shoe [9, thereby retaining the sighting plate in its raised position, as will hereinafter be described.

The sighting plate is slotted substantially from end to end to form an opening 23, through which the front sight and the target to be shot at may be viewed, a similar slot 24 being formed in the standard and in register with slot 23 so that the sighting plate may be used both in its raised and in its lowered position. The rear face of the sighting plate is, provided with a series of depressions generally indicated at 28. These are arranged on opposite sides of the slot 23 and are staggered with relation to each other; cross-lines in the form of cut slots 29 are also provided, which align with and cut through the depressions 28. The lines are formed on opposite sides of the slot 23 and give the optical illusion of extending across the same.

The depressions, together with the cut crosslines, are partially filled with a phosphorescent material which gives off suflicient light to illuminate the depressions and cross-lines, this being particularly so in semior total darkness. In fact, too much light is produced by the white and yellow rays emanating therefrom; hence filtering of the phosphorescent light has been found necessary and is accomplished by covering the depressions with a transparent lacquer or similar material, which has been mixed with a color dye, such as red, green, blue, etc. Such a lacquer will harden after application, and as such will cover and protect the phosphorescent material, and will at the same time filter out the undesirable rays.

When a pointing device or sight of this character is applied to an ordinary rifle or machine gun, it is seldom that a range of more than 600 to 650 yards is atempted; hence the sighting plate is graduated from 100 to 650 yards. The two lowermost depressions and connected crosslines may be colored red, and indicate the 100 and 150 yard range; the next pair may be colored green, and represent the 200 and 250 yard range; the next pair may be colored blue, and represent the 300 and 350 yard range. As red, green, and blue are the most desirable colors, the colors may be repeated, but as they are disposed in pairs and at different elevations a person using the sight will soon memorize the yardages indicated by the several colors at different elevations.

The sighting plate, as previously stated, is slidably mounted in the standard; hence if the sight is placed on a gun having a greater firing range, the sighting plate may be raised and the sighting range doubled. In actual practice, the light rays emitted by the phosphorescent material are so subdued by the color filters employed,

that the retina of the eye may freely expand to pick up distant vision after dark; thus it becomes possible for the eye to see and align three objects at the same time, to wit, the target to be shot at, the front sight, and any selected cross-line on the sighting plate. It will be understood that the rear edge of the front sight will be slotted as indicated at 40, and partially filled with a phosphorescent material, and then covered with a colored light-filtering medium, in the same manner as previously described, as it is obviously necessary to illuminate the front sight as well as the rear sight.

By referring to Figs. 10 and 2, it will be noted that the rear face of the sighting plate is beveled or inclined on opposite sides of the slot, as indicated at 43. This is important as light beams from some exterior source striking the sighting plate, if it were fiat, might be reflected and projected into the eye; but by beveling the faces as shown such rays would be reflected on an angle away from the eye, and any blinding effect is accordingly avoided.

While certain features of my invention have been more or less specifically described and illustrated, I nevertheless wish it understood that changes may be resorted to within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described and illustrated my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A rear sight for guns, said sight having an elongated plate which is adapted to assume a vertical position with relation to the barrel of a gun, and said plate having a vertical slot formed centrally thereof facing the gunner and extending substantially from end to end of the plate, a plurality of spaced graduation slots formed in one face of the plate crosswise thereof and on opposite sides of the slot to indicate different ranges, a luminous material applied in said slots to illuminate the slots, and a transparent colored light filtering medium covering the luminous material to filter out undesirable rays, said light filtering medium having a different color for each slot to visually distinguish and indicate the different range graduations.

2. A rear sight for guns, said sight comprising a base member and a standard, a pivotal connection between the base and the standard to permit the standard to assume a vertical position with relation to the barrel, said standard having a dovetail groove formed in its rear face, a sighting plate supported in the dovetail slot and vertically slidable therein, said plate and the standard being vertically slotted to form an elongated sighting openin'g, means for frictionally resisting sliding movement of the sighting plate in the dovetail slot, said means comprising a spring arm formed by cutting two vertical slots in the standard, one on each side of the sighting slot, and a shoe on the upper end of the spring arm, engageable with the adjacent face of the sighting plate, said shoe exerting frictional pressure on the sighting plate.

CLYDE B. FERREL. 

